In the UK, January used to be known for its sales, to encourage people to part with abit more cash after chrimbo. However as Christmas now seems to begin in Septemebr/October the sales are on before christmas.January in MS world is also a time for sales...but it seems it is increasing sales.......as the companies eek out abit more profit.In this exert from the MS News website (click)

"Biogen began the new year by upping the price of Tecifidera,

Avonex and Plegridy 8%. Tysabri got a 3.5% price hike. This is on top of a 4% price boost in December 2015 and another 5% in May, 2016 for the first three drugs, and increases of 5% in July 2015 and January 2016 for Tysabri".

"What does this mean in terms of dollars?.....estimates a year of Tecfidera now costs about $83,000. Avonex and Plegridy........a price tag of about $81,000".

"Gilenya made by Novartis, and Serono’s Rebif are in the high-priced group. And, on January 1, Teva boosted the price of Copaxone, the top-selling MS drug, by 8%, bringing it to around $76,000 a year".

Happy New Year. So the effective MS cartel prevails, the drugs clearly have different levels of efficacy/risk, but if it comes with a lower price tag the risk of being seen as inferior?

This is surely too much risk and so price hikes all round and more spending on Marketing:-(.

When will this upward spiral stop?

Maybe once disruptors occur, but have generics made any impact?

The price hikes allow the generic makers to increase their prices too.

However, it does mean that NICE and NHS will be ensuring that approaval takes time and and pwMS won't be getting access to new treatments anytime soon.